Indonesia: Anti-corruption activists present five demands to president

Jakarta, Indonesia – Representatives of community-based anti-corruption organizations at a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono here Wednesday (25 January 2012) made five demands on the government`s efforts to fight graft.
The organizations` first demand concerned law enforcement, said Teten Masduki, secretary general of Transparency International Indonesia (TII) after the meeting.

The second demand concerned the way in which the suspected cases of corruption relating to natural resources. The activists asked the president to implement an open and transparent method of investigations in such cases. The activists also requested President to instruct the National Police Chief or the Attorney General to tackle stalled corruption cases and make it easier for the public to access court verdicts on corruption cases.

The third demand was about state budget efficiency should be increased at the planning stage so that there will be no significant budgetary deviations.

In their fourth demand, the anti corruption activists stressed the need to reform the bureaucracy to make it more professional, neutral and cleaner so that it could serve the public in better ways.

Their fifth demand was for the enhancement of the Civil Community and Education Movement against Corruption (Gerakan Masyarakat Sipil dan Pendidikan AntiKorupsi).

Teten said the President promptly gave his response to the activists` demands by outlining what the government had done so far and still had to do to eradicate corruption.
“We believe the eradication of corruption cannot be handled by the government alone as it must be a collective effort,” the President said. He added that he was committed to continuing to forge cooperative relations with non-governmental organizations and the general public to fight corruption. Therefore he wanted a regular and continuing dialogue with non-governmental organisations so that the government, non-governmental organisations and the public could join forces to fight corruption on a wider scale.

Apart from Teten Masduki, those at the meeting included the program manager of the Center for Regional Information and Studies (Pattiro), Maryati, and a member of Pokja 30 from Samarinda, Carolus Tuah. Present at the meeting were also a number of cabinet ministers including Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto, Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin, State Secertary Sudi Silalahi as well as National Police Chief Timur Pradopo and Attorney General Basrief Arief.